Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 10.djvu/590

 SIS FESEBAIi BEFOBXEB. �•when it was necessarily attended by muoh exposure, both of property and person. It went on for a week. The wreckers were laboriously employed, not only in the day-time whenever the weather and sea wonld permit, but on one or two occasions in the night-time when the ship was in especial danger. This extraordinary length of time and extent of service must, in justice, enter prominently into consideration in determining the amount due this libellant. �I corne now to consider the more general relations of this case to the law of salvage. It would be an unprofitable task to examine in detail the many decisions in salvage cases that have been cited by counsel on each side from the admiralty reporters in their exhaustive studies of the subj ect. A peculiarity of admiralty cases, more marked than in those illustrating any other branoh of the law, is that there are seldom any two cases that are alike in more than one or two of their features; while they are so dissimilar in all other features as rarely to afford much ground for saf e comparison. But I think they do show generally that the old rule of allowing to the salvors, arbi- trarily, in every case, half the values saved, no longer obtains. In- deed, that rule came at last to so revolt the courts of admiralty that in their repugnance to it they went far towards the other extreme, and manifested a temper to confine themselves too much in their awards to the quantum meruit estimate of salvage services. There bas lat- terly, however, been a recurrence from extreme views in that direction to the middle ground, of adapting the amount allowed to the circum- stanees of each particular case; giving always the quantum meruit, and giving also, when the case admits of generous treatment, as liberal a bounty Sks may be just and proper. For there are many cases in which, however meritorious the service may have been in respect to all the ingredients of salvage service that have been discussed, and however anxious the courts may have been to grant the bounty, yet the fund in hand for disposai did not aiiord the allowance of more than "adequate remuneration." �Admit that a ship and cargo have been in great danger, and that the services of the salvors have been exceptionally meritorious, and Buch as ought to be rewarded by the court with liberal hand ; yet how obvions is the reflection that this may not be done at all with any justice in some cases, but may be justly done with free hand in oth- ers. And this brings me to the seventh consideration proper to ba observed in an ordinary salvage. ��� �